The Good, the Bad, the Lonely
by green1234
Summary: Remus Lupin was tall, had green calm eyes and shiny light-brown hair. [...] Sirius Black was that classic "tall, dark stranger" guy, who made girls swoon with a little wink and a smile. A story about how Jocelyn (Jo) Whitaker deveops a freindship and maybe even something more with the marauders:)
1. Chapter1:All Aboard the Hogwarts Express

I was on the platform waiting on the Hogwarts express to take me back to Hogwarts for my fifth year as a student there. My stomach was fluttering with butterflies; my brother had almost had a nervous breakdown in his OWL year, and I did not fancy throwing up in front of my entire year like he had.

My mum came back to me from where she had been talking animatedly with James Potter's mother, Linda. The two were very good friends and had been ever since their own time at Hogwarts. This, however, was not something they had passed on to me and James. Sure, we got on fine, we could even be considered friends once in a while, but once our mothers went their separate ways, so did we. It wasn't like I didn't like him or anything, he was nice enough, it was just that he spent all his time with Remus Lupin, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew, the last of whom was extremely annoying, and quite frankly, reeked of desperation.

They were always running around on clouds and flirting with whichever girl caught their fancy. I had reflected quite a few times (not at all bitterly or anything) that this never included me. Not that it really mattered all that much; not a single one of the group had ever had a girlfriend for more than two months, not for a lack of offers, mind you, the only exception being Peter.

Remus Lupin was tall, had green calm eyes and shiny dull-brown hair. He was pretty handsome with defined jawbone and a small dimple in his left cheek. Apparently the girls at Hogwarts thought so too, because when he smiled, at least six pairs of eyes were glued to him, no matter where he was. However, he didn't really smile all that often and there was a weary sadness in his eyes that broke my heart a little. Remus had never had a girlfriend at all, and no one could for the life of them figure out why. It definitely made him more popular with the girls, though. Maybe he was playing hard to get. In that case it was working.

Sirius was that classic "tall, dark stranger" guy, who made girls swoon with a little wink and a smile. It was pathetic, watching them throw themselves at him. The boy very definitely didn't need his ego fed, as it was probably the size of England by now, but that didn't stop it from happening. He was the most flirt-easy guy in our year, hell, probably in the entire school, and never seemed to go without a girl for more than two weeks at a time. Totally the most annoyingly arrogant guy Hogwarts had ever seen.

Peter was a short, stubby-looking kid who laughed way too loudly at all jokes produced by the trio, ate with his mouth open and touched girls on their bums "accidentally" at least three times a week. He was the only one of them who had actually made a come-on to me, needless to say, it creeped me out. When this had happened, James had been at his side, laughing his ass off, and teasing me about being too irresistible for Peter to keep away. I had retorted with a covert hint at Lily. That had silenced him.

Out of the four, I definitely knew James best; although we weren't really good friends, there had been quite a few dinner "parties" (meaning our mothers trying and failing to make dinner and gossiping to each other about their old school friends) where we had been sent out of the room. Our fathers always opted to stay away for these gatherings, instead choosing to head to a pub to talk with guys about quidditch (typical), and my younger brother usually slept at a friend's palce. During these evenings, we always ended up sitting together in our basement or James' room and talking or playing cards. Sometimes we even flew around on brooms for a while; James' dad had one that I usually borrowed, as it was never in use anyway. James was like the acquaintance you're friends with when there are no other options, and it suited us both just fine.

I knew, for instance, that he had had the biggest crush on my dorm-mate Lily Evans _forever_. She was a dead-beautiful, down-to-earth genius and all the teachers adored her, so it wasn't exactly a shock. She had soft shiny copper hair that somehow fell perfectly without any potions or anything, and shiny green eyes that sparkled when she laughed. Every girl in our year was annoyed at her effortless beauty, me included at some occasions. At least a forth of the guys in her age-range had a crush on her, half of whom had asked her out and been rejected, four of whom had been successful and extremely big-headed for it. That is, until she dumped their asses.

I really liked Lily. We weren't friends per say, but I looked up to her for how she handled things. The reason I knew about James' crush on her was that he had wanted to know what she had said about him. I lied and told him she hadn't said anything. This was not true. At all. Lily _really _didn't like James. It might have something to do with the fact that whenever he was around her, he started acting really obnoxious and trying to impress her by doing stupid, only-a-guy-could-ever-understand-the-logic-behind-it things like hexing her best guy friend of five years; Severeus Snape. (He was rude as hell and sneered at us whenever she turned her back, but still).

At the other end of the platform, James smiled and raised his hand to greet me, I smiled back and we rolled our eyes at the way our mothers were waving at each other with enthusiasm; they had always been a pair of girly women together. However, James' attention didn't stay on me for long, because he had spotted Lily coming through the barrier from King's Cross. She looked at James, sighed in obvious irritation, and started looking around for someone she knew. She spotted me, and made her way over, smile on her face.

"Hey, Jo," she smiled, "had a nice summer break?" She hugged me, and I told her my break had been very nice. "Where's Aubrey?" She looked around to see if she spotted her.

Brey was my best friend; her name wasn't really Aubrey, it was Aubriana, but she had dubbed herself Aubrey pretty early on due to the cheesiness of the name her big sister had chosen for her at the age of six. (Not that I was one to speak, with a name like Jocelyn)

"I think she's on her way… Never know with her do you?" Brey had a bad habit of pushing thing off until the last minute. There had been more than one occasion when she had kept me up until too late to help her cram for a test the next day. Not that I minded though, study nights were always fun.

Lily laughed, knowing Brey, and shrugged. "I guess not." She was scanning the crowds again, presumably looking for her two best friends, and waved at them when she spotted them. "I think I see Soph and Annette," she said, scurrying off towards the two remaining girls of our dorm. "See you later!" They were both nice girls, although they did seem to have so much more confidence than me. I really envied them that. Of course, it's easy to be confident when you're tall, blonde and beautiful like Sophie, or a slender and graceful black-haired beauty like Annette.

I was not like them. Sure, I wasn't bad-looking, but you definitely couldn't compare me to them, or Brey, she too had some male admirers. I was average height, about five, five, and had dull brown hair that sort of just hung there. I usually wore it down, but today I had felt inspired and put a little more effort into it; I'd made a braid that ran down with my hair, and I was actually quite happy with my hair today. An anomaly. My eyes were not quite blue, and pretty boring compared to Brey's almost purple ones or Sophie's deep brown ones.

I heard someone calling my name, and turned around to see Brey approaching me, grin on her face. I smiled and hugged her, we hadn't seen each other for four weeks; she had been in France visiting her sister and her husband. They had settled down in a small almost full-wizarding village near Bordeaux. "Jo! I missed you." She squealed at me. I looked at her, and saw that the four weeks under the southern sun had made her sandy blonde hair a shade lighter. I also noticed that it was now at least three inches shorter. It now fell down and rested on her shoulders and looked fantastic on her.

"You cut your hair!" I said as I picked up a strand of her curls loosely and dropped it back on her shoulder. "It looks incredible! Why didn't you tell me, silly?"

"I didn't really think about to be honest. I was a bit preoccupied." She smiled and I could see that she was just bursting with news. "Jenna's having a baby!" Jenna was her sister. I congratulated her and waved at her mother who was approaching us.

"Hey, Mrs. Morgan! Congrats on your grandkid," I said. She smiled and thanked me heartily before bending down to give me a hug.

"Are you ready for your OWL year, Jo?" She said and looked over at her daughter, "Because I'm counting on you to keep this one at least somewhat focused." She smiled and ruffled Brey's hair, much to her dismay.

"Sure thing," I winked at Brey; we had to be allowed to have at least a tiny bit of fun, didn't we? The whistle sounded over the platform, signaling us to get our stuff together and our asses on the train. We gathered up our things and our pets (I had a small darling white, black and orange cat called Charlise and Brey's owl's name was Kahoot) and bade our parents farewell before we treaded through the train in the hunt for a train compartment. I saw my little brother, Tommy, disappear with his second year friends, and it didn't go past me that he was looking at a particularly adorable hufflepuff girl named Ava and blushing, I knew he had a gigantic crush on her and I decided to tease him a little.

"Oi, Toms!" I called, and he very reluctantly looked at me, "no snogging that hufflepuff girl of yours, ey?" He blushed red, called me a name our grandmother would be shocked to hear, and was gone. Chuckling I turned around to see James grinning at me.

"Good one." He complimented me, and ran a hand through his already messy hair. "I haven't seen him that red since we found his picture of Ava underneath his pillow last spring." I laughed with him at the happy memory.

"So where's your posy?" I asked him a little sarcastically. I usually didn't see him without them.

"Ah!" Came a familiar, arrogant voice from behind me, "alas, she misses me!" Sirius said as he came up and leaned against the train wall. He smirked at me in the most cocky way possible. "Be careful, Prongs, so you don't put any ideas into her poor little head." He looked at me and winked, as if expecting me to swoon like any pathetic Black-groupie. So not happening.

"Good to know you haven't given up hope yet, Black." I looked at Sirius dryly, letting him know that his little pick-ups definitely wouldn't work with me or Brey, for that matter, who was standing right next to me. I turned around to her, and we walked off down the hall before we found one that was free. After we had gotten all our stuff in order, I got out my book that I had just discovered; a muggle book called "Little Women." I had just this summer started reading some old muggle books, and I was finding them very interesting. This one, for example, I could relate to all of the girls, and seeing as one of them even shared my name, it only made I that much more exciting.

Although both my parents were magical, I still liked some of the things muggles had to offer. Literature, for example, and I loved muggle music. My favorite was John Lennon, a strange obsession that I had transferred on to Brey.

We sat in silence, with our separate books waiting for the train to start when Lily, Sophie and Annette knocked on our door, looking relieved.

"Hey, guys," Lily said and smiled at us, "You have no idea how few compartments are left, can we sit with you guys?" We nodded, and the three girls entered and loaded up their luggage. When they had sat down, Lily looked at me and exclaimed: "You're reading Little Women!" It made all of us jump; Lily wasn't usually one to exclaim things (unless it concerned James, of course). "I'm sorry," she said, goofy smile spreading across her face, "it's just that nobody at Hogwarts seems to have read it. It's my favorite book."

Lily and I spent a lot of time talking about Little Women, and it turned out she was a fan of John Lennon too, turns out he was actually quite famous in the muggle community. Brey was really excited about knowing what we were talking about, and threw herself into the conversation, leaving Sophie and Annette looking at us in bewilderment until the subject had passed. In the end, I ended up putting away my book, as all of us began talking about what the year ahead of us held, and I almost didn't notice that time flew by, and before I knew it we stopped at Hogwarts.


	2. Chapter 2: Welcome back

**So, I didn't get in an author's note on the last one, but this is my first story, so just trying to figure this stuff out:) I apoligize for any spelling mistakes; English is my second language, Other than that, please enjoy, and I would be very happy if you reviewed:* Thanks!**

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><p>Spirits had been pretty high the day before when we had arrived at Hogwarts; the feast had proceeded as usual, with the headmaster saying a few brief words before and after the usual spectacular meal dished out by the house elves at Hogwarts. When we were finished eating, we had gone back to Gryffindor tower to unpack and get settled, and of course, the fifth year boys (aka James, Remus, Sirius and Peter) had extended a very warm welcome to us by hexing all the beds of the tower so that you got drenched to the skin when you got in. How they did it in the girls' dormitories had been somewhat of a discussion point, but I assumed they had had some assistance in the form of naïve forth years. I had to admit though; watching professor McGonagall come down from her room, hair down and soaking wet was pretty funny.<p>

The first day of school, however was quite rough. I had double charms first in the morning and history of magic right afterwards. Neither of which I particularly enjoyed. The only good thing was that Brey was in both so I could pass the time (at least in history of magic) talking with her sending notes back and forth. As normal the first day of school was just a sort of introduction to the school year. Worse than usual, though because all the teachers insisted on imprinting in us the importance of our OWLs. As if we didn't already know; if there had been anyone who wasn't stressed about the year before first lesson, definitely were after.

After lunch was better though; I had transfiguration, which was one of my two favorite subjects (along with care of magical creatures). McGonagall talked about our OWLs in explicit detail, but this time I was actually interested as I wanted to get as much as possible out of my OWL in this subject.

When we were all gathered in the common room that afternoon, we already had homework to do. We had to write three inches for each class about our goals and expectations for OWLs, and come up with a brief summary of important points from last year. By the time we finished, dinner was ready and we went happily downstairs to eat.

I noticed the boys talking among themselves in hushed voices, all of them except James, who was staring at Lily in a way he probably thought was covert, were looking very intrigued. Remus was looking as pale and ill as ever, and I wondered what was going on with the boy. His attendance record was as holey as Peter's robes and we had barely started the school year and he already looked stressed

When the time started to near eight o'clock that evening, Remus got up from where he had been sitting on the couch with his friends, and walked out through the portrait hole. Without the others. Weird.

"Earth to Jo," said Brey waving her hands at me. "You were staring at the boys again." Brey had got it into her mind that I had developed some sort of secret love for Remus, because I kept watching him. I wasn't true of course, the watching him part, probably, but not the love part. There was just something odd with him. He regularly got ill, and had to miss school. Like clockwork, once a month, always for one day only. It had gotten to the stage where he had his own space in the hospital wing. I'm not kidding, he had a small dresser in the hospital wing containing bed clothes and bathroom stuff; he was there that often.

"Sorry, Brey," I smiled at her apologetically; we had been talking about the newest object of her fancy, a hufflepuff sixth-year who, admittedly, was gorgeous. He had smiled at her from across the room at lunch, and like that he had her hooked. His name was Chester and he was a beater for the hufflepuff quidditch team, and was therefore lean and tall, with green eyes. He was also a prefect, and had very good grades. I could see why she liked him.

She continued talking about it enthusiastically, and I listened, egging her on occasionally with a comment like: "and those eyes" or "didn't you see the way he smiled at you, I think he might fancy you." However, Remus was still there in the back of my mind, bugging me with the fact that there was _something _that I was missing. Something I should know, and I knew once I figured it out, I would feel stupid for not knowing all along.

... … …

The week came and went pretty quickly as we all slipped back into our normal school routine, although nobody could deny that the teachers were assigning us more homework. Brey and I were spending more and more time with Lily and her friends after the train ride together and had even started sitting with them in lunch, which was new. They were an invaluable resource to us when it came to our weaker subjects. Neither of us were stupid or anything, in fact, I quite prided myself with being pretty smart, but Lilly was brilliant at potions and helped me with muggle studies, and Sophie was the best in our class at astronomy. Annette was an arithmancy genius, but that was a subject I didn't take, so she wasn't too much help to me. Brey however had said multiple times already that she would have failed to understand her homework had it not been for her. In return, I helped them with transfiguration and care of magical creatures.

When I came into transfiguration on Wednesday, I was greeted with the lovely sight of Sirius Black already working hard snogging a new girl. I recognized her as the Ravenclaw Karla Jensen. Pushing past them to get to my seat over by the window that I shared with Brey, I sighed heavily, glad that I had been lucky enough not to have too much contact with him. He seemed to have heard me because he broke away from her and they both looked at me smugly. "What is it, Whitaker, you jealous?" He said, smirking at me.

"Yeah," I replied looking him dead in the eye "of Susanna that is." Susanna was Sirius' most recent ex and she had been the one to dump him. That didn't usually happen. Usually Sirius Black left a trail of broken hearts behind him as he walked.

He flipped me off, but I could see the smirk forming on his lips, and I heard James, Peter and Remus snickering in a corner.

"Settle down," McGonagall said as she came into the classroom. Once again, Sirius had attached himself to Karla, and McGonagall took one look at them and exclaimed a word of frustration before shooing the girl out of the room. "Honestly, Black, have you absolutely no self-control?"

Instead of Sirius, it was the boys who answered:

"Nope," said Peter.

"Nada," said James.

"None whatsoever," Remus chimed in with an amused glance at his best friend.

"Oh, for heaven's sake!" McGonagall threw her arms up in exasperation as he made a move to go sit in the corner with the guys. "I think not Mister Black," she paused briefly "No, in fact, why don't you take a seat right here up front where I can see you." She looked over the front row. "Ah! There you go, Black, you may sit with Miss Whitaker here."

"What?!" I said, completely stunned. I had to sit next to him for a year? But he was so irritating: he always had some girl fussing over him, and wouldn't stop being so damn arrogant. And on top of that, what about Brey? I loved transfiguration, but it wouldn't be nearly as much fun without her to laugh with. "But Professor McGonagall, what about Aubrey?"

"Miss Morgan can sit with Miss McKee" Annette was sitting by herself behind Lily and Sophie. Usually, they would rotate, but I guess they didn't have to anymore.

Sirius grinned as he picked up his bag and moved to sit next to me. "I guess you're stuck with me, aren't you Whitaker?" I sighed; it was going to be a long year.

… … …

By Friday, I was pretty sure that something was going on between Brey and Chester. To many complaints, the first day of potions we had walked into the dungeons to find that professor Slughorn had drawn each of our names above separate desks. It worked out pretty well for Brey and me, seeing as we had potions with hufflepuff, she got to sit next to Chester. Her face when she saw was just adorable. I was seated next to James, which was okay, I mean, he was pretty good at potions too, and nice to talk to. The only thing that was bothering me was the fact that he kept throwing things back and forth to Sirius where he was sitting in the back row. I suspected that Slughorn had intentionally separated them, as our seat was right in the front and right in the opposite corner from Sirius.

… … …

For the third time in my time at Hogwarts we had a new defense against the dark arts teacher; our first and second year we had been taught by a nice and talented witch by the name of Professor Whitehead, but she had disappeared rather mysteriously at the end of second year, and Hogwarts had had trouble hanging on to its defense teachers since then. It had become sort of a game for us to spin stories of what happened to them, and what we expected to happen to the next one.

Our teacher this year was a sturdy looking guy whose name was Professor Willems. We had only had three defense classes so far, but he seemed pretty good.

Our first proper class had been a double lesson in which we had learned about dementors and their properties and effects. He didn't tell us how to fight them off though, which was disappointing, but he promised he would during our next lesson. I was really anxious to learn because I had already felt the effects of the dementors once before and wasn't tempted to do it again.

It had been on a day during my third year winter break. Our neighbor had been caught performing the cruciatus curse on a muggle man that supposedly had been sleeping with his wife. The dementors had come to take him away to Azkaban, and I just couldn't imagine what it had to be like, living surrounded by them. Being near them completely drained me. I didn't have defense again until the week after though, so I just had to wait.


	3. Chapter 3: Revelations

It was mid-October before Chester finally decided to take action and kiss Brey. It was about time, seeing as they had been flirting like crazy almost non-stop since the start of term.

We were in the dormitories getting for bed when Brey told us (I honestly didn't know why we hadn't been friends with these girls before. They were so nice and fun to be around). Of course it wasn't like we hadn't expected it; Annette had even offered to slip him some love potion. It was a joke, obviously, but the two of them were getting so annoying that I actually considered doing it for a moment before I remembered, you know, that I wasn't insane.

When she came into the room with a glaze in her eyes and a secretive smile, we all jumped on her to tell us what had happened. "Well," she said, obviously a little love struck, "I was just on my way from the library back here, when I ran into him in the hallway just outside that classroom that just sits there, and we started talking." We all looked at her when she took a brief pause and urged her to continue her story. "So I had my bag, right, and it was pretty heavy. When he saw that I was uncomfortable, he took my bag from me and offered to walk me back here, and of course I said yes… When we stopped in front of the portrait whole, she looked me in the eye, brushed some hair off my face…" She paused for a dramatic effect "and then he kissed me!" When she said this we all squealed like real girls and threw our arms around her.

"About time!" Sophie said, and we all agreed with her.

"Yeah," said Lily, "I mean, you two have been beating around the bush for ages." When she said this we all looked at her. She wasn't making a bit of sense, what did gardening have to do with Brey getting a hot new boy?

"Oh, come on!" She threw her hands up in a dramatic hand gesture, I'd noticed she was getting bigger on the whole 'exclaiming things' thing, "it doesn't even have anything to do with muggles… Seriously?" We all shook our heads, no. "It means that you sort of get close to doing things, but you never really do them, you know, like you're avoiding them…"

This rang a bell to me, "oh… you mean like _floundering about the floo_?" I asked. She sighed heavily but nodded nonetheless.

That night we sat up for almost two hours talking about Brey's new boyfriend and various other crushes or crushers and didn't go to sleep until almost one thirty.

… … …

It was the twenty-forth of October, and thus far, sitting next to Sirius in transfiguration wasn't as bad as I'd expected. Sure, he was throwing things and teasing me and I had to put up with his annoying girlfriend, but he was actually nice-ish when you actually talked to him.

I had found out, for example, that he worked hard and didn't just saunter along. And it wasn't as though I hadn't known he was smart, trust me, the whole school knew, but I hadn't expected him to contribute to any of the class-work we were assigned. In the end of September, McGonagall had assigned us an eighteen inch essay on elemental transfiguration, that is, making objects and animals not only change appearance, but completely changing the nature of the object. This was to be completed with our seating partners and be handed in the next Friday. I had been completely prepared to march down into the common room and coerce Sirius into helping me, when he had turned up in the library with nothing but his quill, some parchment and a lopsided smile. It annoyed me to no end that he just knew what McGonagall had said without so much as even opening a textbook, and quite reluctantly, I had set to work.

One day when I entered the classroom, Karla was nowhere to be seen and although I welcomed the change; she usually clung to him like a wood pixie clung to her tree, I was curious about what had happened. "What'd you do with your baby pacifier," I said as I sat down by the table and he leaned back on his chair. "Did you happen to misplace it?"

He grinned at me, apparently untouched by my little jab at him. "Dropped her," he ran a hair through his hair and shrugged, "she was getting a bit too clingy."

"Damn," I feigned disappointment, "you were so close to breaking your record."

"I know," he smirked, "Isn't it a bloody shame?"

"Poor girl," I muttered under my breath mostly to myself, but he seemed to think I was talking to him.

"It's not like she didn't know what it was. I told her before we started going out that I wasn't looking for a serious relationship, pun intended," he grinned and I rolled my eyes, "and she said she wasn't either." He wasn't smiling anymore, but looking at me as though expecting me to agree. I knew that he was right, and that she probably had known it was going to happen at some point, but I also knew what she felt like.

I looked down on my hands for a minute before looking up at him again and said: "Still… nobody deserves to get their heart broken." He looked at me with a curious expression on his face, but didn't say anything as McGonagall chose that moment to start the class.

… …. ….

Later that day, I had defense against the Dark arts, and we all trickled into the classroom when Mr. Willems opened the door. We were doing patronuses today, and I was really excited. The second week of school when I had been ready to learn, he had come into the class and said that Dumbledore found it more prominent that we learn proper shield charms and how to defend ourselves against offensive spells.

When we had all sat down, me sitting next to Brey, Lily, Sophie and Annette, he cleared his throat and told us to get back up and form a line across the room, and to bring our wands. It was a peculiar request, but we did it nonetheless. It became clear why pretty soon as he started separating us up two by two. Much to my dismay, he paired me up with none other than Sirius Black.

"I want you all to work with somebody you wouldn't normally work with," he explained to us. Lily's irritated face as she stood next to James was hilarious. She looked thoroughly frustrated as he ran a hand through his hair and tried to lean back casually, forgetting that there, in fact, was no wall behind him, and tumbling backwards awkwardly. Sirius was chortling behind me, and I couldn't suppress a laugh. Evidently, neither could Lily, though not for lack of trying.

I looked around the room and saw that the Brey had been teamed up with Peter who looked like Christmas had come early. I chuckled; this was sure to be fun to watch. Looking around again, I saw that Remus was looking like he was just about ready to drop dead at any given moment where he stood with his wand ready with Jacob Robins, a muggleborn Ravenclaw.

"Alright," Professor Willems drew our attention to him again, "the charm is simple. Repeat after me if you will: Expecto Patronum!" The classroom was instantly filled with a chorus of 'Expecto Patronum's and I looked over at Sirius, and came to the conclusion that he too found it pretty amusing. "Very good," Willems said, as if though he was teaching a bunch of first years, "now the wand movement is easy enough too, however, this still a challenging spell; in order for your patronus to take a real shape, a corporal patronus so to say, you have to have a powerful happy memory in mind while doing it. This will, if strong enough, repel any present dementors and defend you. Now everybody has different patronuses, so should anyone be able to do it today, I don't want any judgment, okay?" He looked at us all with a stern look in his eyes that told us that he wasn't joking before he demonstrated the wand movement to us, and told us to have a go at it as well.

Not surprisingly, James, Sirius and Remus all knew how to cast the charm, so when a stag, a big dog, and a soaring eagle started swirling about the room, I just sighed. The boys all smirked at me, they knew that I knew that they had been practicing the charm obsessively since we found out about it some weeks ago; they (especially James and Sirius) were all for showing off. James threw a covert glance at Lily as she watched his Stag leap around the cornices of the room with a look of befuddled wonder. I could see why she looked like that seeing as the three wispy silver creatures were absolutely beautiful. They had a sort of majestic air about them and emitted a low white glow that shone on and illuminated the faces of the students they jumped by.

After the Gryffindor boys, sans Peter, had been awarded twenty points each for extraordinary magic and aiding the teacher in demonstration, we all set off to work.

I racked my brain trying to come up an appropriate memory for such a powerful spell and experienced an unusual sense of nostalgia. I tried various Christmases and birthdays; I tried meeting Brey and joining together at the hips right away; and I even tried a special memory from third year when Eric Hall, whom I had been fancying for weeks, gave me a small red rose and asked me to join him in Hogsmeade 'like, um, maybe, if you're interested, as, you know… a date'. It was the first time anyone had ever asked me out, and when I said yes and kissed him on the cheek, he'd blushed and walked away with a gesture that seemed like a strange mixture between a nod and a wave. We'd dated for almost three months, and I was the first girl in my dorm to have a girlfriend. It was all very exciting back then.

Nothing seemed to work, however; the only thing that happened was a little silver cloud seeping out of the tip of my wand and swirling around for a little moment before it dispersed.

Sirius sighed after the fifth time I tried and came over to me. Except from the boys, no one had managed anything more impressive than a transparent little rat scattering away from Peter's wand time and time again and it was clear that the students were getting frustrated.

The first couple of times I had tried, Sirius had stood by shaking with silent laughter. Now it seemed he was getting a bit tired of if, not that I could blame him.

"Okay, stop." Sirius said to me and lowered my wand with his hand, "obviously, your memory isn't powerful enough. You need to dig deep to a day or a moment where you were so happy you literally couldn't stop smiling."

"Well it's not so easy you know," I whined, "we haven't all been practicing in secret for weeks." When I said this he laughed and winked at me.

"Now, you mustn't go revealing my trade secrets, love, or my reputation as a brilliant bad-boy shall be tainted." I saw the mischievous glint in his eye as he said this with a dramatic flair. Obviously he rejoiced in having his choose and pick in girls around the school and he really wasn't bad looking either. Something told me that he appreciated being envied by most of the guys in our year, too.

"Well what memory did you do?" I asked him, wondering if this was not, perhaps, a little too personal.

To my surprise, he looked at me with a straight face and said: "The day I showed up at James' front door and his parents took me in." I could see in his eyes that it was an ambivalent memory. So it was true then; Sirius had left the Noble House of Black and moved in with the Potters. There had been rumors going around the school, but no one had known for sure.

I thought about for a moment. I'd always loved my family, not like Sirius who had despised his. My home had been a safe and loving place for me to grow up in, and I loved my whole family a lot; not that I'd ever tell either of my brothers this though, they'd tease me half to death.

My mother was a talented witch by the name Beata and was known by some witches and wizards for the books she wrote about love, friendship and growing up. I always got to be the first person to read to her books when she finished them, and it had been like that since I was old enough to follow the plot. She'd read them to me until I was able to read myself, after which I started to bring them to the small alcove by the window in our attic. It had become something of a ritual to me, and here at Hogwarts, I would sit and read them on the windowsill of the window in the staircase to the girls' dormitories that looked out over the black lake and the lawns by the lakeside.

At the age of nineteen my mother had married a young wizard named Theon who was transpiring to become a veterinarian for magical creatures. My father had always wanted his children to love animals and as I was the only one who did, he used to take me to work with him to meet all kinds of animals and see all kinds of strange creatures. Neither of my brothers liked animals, but they were pretty good at quidditch (well, Tom was, Aerick kicked ass) and, even though I had never played myself I loved it when he took us to games.

I had two brothers; Aerick (I know, my parents had a strange taste in names), my older brother had graduated from Hogwarts two years previously, and was currently playing seeker for the Wimbourne Wasps. My younger brother, Trumbald (he dubbed himself Tom for a good reason), was a second year and had a strange talent of remembering anything he was told as long as it had to do with history or geography. Ask him what the capitol of Kazakhstan was, and he have an answer in less than two second, ask him his sister's birthday, he'd ask for multiple choice options.

The youngest member of our family was my little sister, Gwenora, I called her Nora and everybody else called her Gwen, was seven years old and the sweetest girl you could ever imagine. Nora and I had never really had what was considered a normal sisterly relationship; I couldn't remember a single time I'd been angry at Nora. It probably had something to do with the fact that, for the most part, we didn't live together, I lived at Hogwarts and she lived at home.

I had been maybe nine when Nora was born and I remember holding her in my arms, so happy about the fact that I was no longer the only girl, and looking into her big brown beautiful eyes. The two years I had lived in the same house as her, I carried her around like she was a baby doll and read her stories of gnomes and elves and fairies and everything I loved, and when she was old enough to walk she followed me around everywhere. I was really sad when I had had to leave her to go to Hogwarts and there was an old faded picture of her smiling and laughing at me as a two year old on the wall behind my bed. My first year I had come home from Hogwarts at Christmas, she hadn't remembered me. I cried in my room for an hour before she had come padding into my room carrying a manuscript of my mother's most recent books to read to her. Since then, I had made it a priority to talk to them over the floo network at least once every fortnight so she wouldn't forget me.

I was torn back to reality by Sirius tapping my forehead. I opened my eyes, sighed heavily and rolled my eyes at him, small smile tugging at my lips. He just laughed and said: "So, found a good one?"

"I think so," I said and thinking about the first time Nora had curled her hand around my finger and said my name, said the incantation that could save my soul.

I cried out in surprise when I saw a beautiful Bobcat sprinting from the tip of my wand, and watched it in astonishment as it sprang gracefully around the room. I wondered what it meant, why was my patronus a Bobcat? Then again, now that I knew, it seemed as if any other animal would have been wrong to me.

My bobcat had the full attention of the class and professor Willems clapped his hands and asked: "May I ask what you were thinking of, Miss Whitaker, so that other students may learn from your example?"

"I was thinking of my little sister," I said. A few people looked at me disbelievingly, but it didn't matter to me. I had been the first of my class to produce a corporal patronus! (I didn't count James or the guys because they cheated.)

It seemed that my example was helpful, because two minutes later an astonishing doe emerged from Lily's wand. After Lily, the classroom was slowly bathed in the beautiful white light produced by the various silver animals leaping around their producers. I caught Remus' eye as a monkey swung on an invisible rope in front of his face, and he smiled at me. The light was mesmerizing; almost like the white glow that carpeted the grounds every full moon…

As stood there looking at him in that light, the sudden realization hit me like a bludger to the face…

The full moon.


	4. Chapter 4: Remus

It couldn't be. It wasn't possible… Remus was a werewolf?

I had to sit down as another wave of shock came over me. It couldn't be true, yet it made perfect sense: the pale skin, the regular illness, the scarred skin, the sadness in his eyes… It all fit together perfectly, like a wand in hand.

Sirius looked at me at the abrupt change in my mood and asked me if I was okay. I waved him off, my mind whirling and turning with hundreds of tiny images and words that made up a perfect storm of unanswered questions. I looked at Remus again, and saw that he was moving towards me, clearly worried that something had happened to me. When he made his way over to me again, I looked into his eye as he kneeled down and I studied the scars on his face. Nobody was looking at us except for James, Peter and Sirius; after a while the boys, the only exception being Sirius, had inched away from their assigned partners to work with each other.

Remus touched my arm and said with a voice full of concern: "Jocelyn? Are you okay, what happened?" He was such a nice, sweet boy. The sort of guy who stood by his friends and defended the ones he loved. I wondered how long he had been living with his condition… it must have had been since before he started Hogwarts as he had always had his illness while I knew him. How much had it shaped his life? He always seemed so careful, yet there had been times when James and Sirius had pulled a particularly good prank or hexed someone, that I had seen a hint of a prankster in Remus too. Was his condition what kept him contained?

I reached out my hand out to touch a scar on his face that stretched from above his right eyebrow down to his temple. Being careful that he was the only one that could hear my voice I whispered: "A werewolf?"

A look of despair and darkness fell like a curtain over his face and he got up abruptly and left the room. The boys' faces all displayed confusion, and James hurried out of the room after him. I wanted to go too, and tell him that it didn't matter and that I didn't judge him, but Sirius held me locked to my seat. His eyes; dark like the sky before a storm, bore into mine with such intensity that I couldn't bring myself to move.

I had never seen this side of Sirius before, the loyal, protective side. He obviously thought I had hurt Remus, and for all I knew I had. He looked at me for what felt like half an hour before gathering up his and James' things and leaving the room with Peter scurrying after him.

A minute or so after Sirius left, the bell rang signaling the end of the class and I took my bag and ran out into the hallway, not knowing where they could possibly be. Running though an oncoming rush of students along the corridors trying to get to Gryffindor tower, I made sure to look into every classroom, but he wasn't there.

I ran into the common room, a little out of breath, and searched the faces for any of the boys still to no success. A noise from the boys stairwell drew my attention there. I debated for a while whether I should do it and in the end, I ran up the stairs with a little curse under my breath.

At the top of the stairs I stopped in front of a red door with a small painted sign that said: '1971-1978'. Taking a deep breath, I knocked on the door, and waited.

Nothing happened. I was standing outside the door, and it was still closed. I grabbed the handle and pushed the door open thinking that the boys were ignoring me, but the messy dormitory with five beds and a thousand other things was completely empty. I sighed and dropped my bag off in my dorm before I went back down to look some more.

I had been walking through corridors for almost an hour when, as I passed through an empty corridor on the third floor, I felt someone grab a hold of my robes and pulling me aside somewhere I didn't know.

Before I knew what was happening, I was pinned up to the wall by a pair of hands that belonged to a familiar face.

"James!" I exclaimed, "I've been looking for you guys everywhere… is Remus okay?"

He just looked at me intently and shook his head as though trying to shake things into order. "Look, Jo," he said a little hesitantly, "you can't tell anybody. You can't." He looked at e again, and then from me to his hands which were resting on my shoulders. Very suddenly, he removed them, realizing that I wouldn't try to go anywhere.

"Of course not," I shook my head, "it's not my secret to tell."

His head snapped up and I could see the relief in his eyes; obviously, he hadn't been sure what to expect.

"And what do you think?" He had backed off a little, giving me back my space. "Do you think he's a monster?"

I laughed out loud, and James looked at me quizzically. "It's just that," I was still laughing, trying to get my voice back, as it seemed to have run away on its own. I was so overcome with laughter that I had to sit down on the floor in order for me not to tip over. I supposed a part of my laughter was a little aftershock, because it wasn't _that _funny, James seemed to think so too because he put a hand on my arm and sat down next to me with a concerned look. I waited with completing my though until I had regained some semblance of voice control, "it's kind of ironic, isn't it? You and Sirius running around the school causing mayhem, and _Remus _is the so called 'monster?" I said thinking back to James' puppy eyes. "And you should have seen your face!" I threw my head back and laughed again, and James laughed with me. I don't know how long we sat there laughing at the whole thing, but it was probably a while.

We left to look for Remus after a first year had appeared and speed walked by us. Most probably he was afraid of James; he and Sirius was pretty well known for their various pranks and hexes. James led me down through a network of corridors that I hadn't seen before and I was starting to get curious as to where he was taken me. I told him so.

"We're going somewhere," he said turning around and grinning at me.

"Well, obviously," I rolled my eyes, not that he could see me of course, "but where?"

"Relax, miss curiosity, we're almost there."

I had to admit that, even though I was annoyed, running through secret passageways that led to Merlin knew where was sort of exhilarating.

Very suddenly, James came to a stop, causing me to run right into the poor idiot. I tried to regain my balance to get my robes back in order after the run had put in a shambles. I therefore didn't notice until after a few seconds that we were standing in what I presumed was a cave of some sorts.

The place had a musty, mouldy feel and the only light came from what I recognized as peruzian fire floating in a jar below the wet roof. Remus was sitting on a conjured sofa with Peter and Sirius was nowhere to be seen.

Remus' eyes met mine, he looked as if though he expected me to cower away from him or scream at him for being a monster. Oh, the poor guy.

I went over to him and sat down on the couch. He was looking at me quizzically now as if earnestly believed I would shy away from him. Instead I took his hand in mine and put my head on his shoulder; I had never had any trouble with physical contact, and this boy was in sore need of a hug. He tensed up a bit.

"You shouldn't be ashamed. Don't confine yourself, Remus. "He squeezed my hand back and relaxed into my hug. I chortled as another thought came to me, "You know what? Meet any girl on the wrong day of the month, and she'll be scarier than you are on a full moon."

The boys all laughed and I felt the tension leaving the room.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So, what do you think? Too corny?**


	5. Chapter 5: Halloween

The next few weeks passed in somewhat of a blur, and before I even realized the half-term had passed, we were on the day before Halloween.

That day, when I walked into muggle studies, I wasn't surprised to see that Remus wasn't there. It was the full moon the night before. Still, it was going to be boring to sit alone for a double lesson. I had taken to sit next to Remus in muggle studies lately as Peter wasn't in that class he had used to sit alone. Actually, Remus and I had become pretty good friends over the last month. My friends had all been curious as to what had happened that day in defense, not that I could blame them; it must have looked peculiar. Remus running off looking as if he'd been hit by a stunner in the chest, Sirius' staring me down with an intensity previously unknown to man and me sprinting after all of them when they stormed out. It was, after all, not like I was really friends with them then or anything. They'd gotten to be my friends over the past couple of weeks though, Peter at a lesser scale.

My friends thought that was odd too, all of a sudden I was spending time with the guys without anybody forcing me to. It only made Brey all the more suspicious about my supposed love affair with Remus.

I dumped my bag on the floor beside me and got out my quill and parchment, resigning myself to a class of doodling. I started drawing idly on my parchment. It was something I did once in a while; it let me tune out for a few minutes. However, it seemed that that wouldn't be necessary. A movement in corner of eye alerted me to Sirius' taking up the seat next to me. He was grinning and looking from me to my parchment and back to me.

I raised my eyebrows and shoved the drawing underneath my textbook. "To what do I owe this _wonder_ful surprise?"

He smirked and said: "Aren't I though?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "You're full of _something, _but I don't think it's wonder."

His attempt at looking scandalized made us both laugh. "I resent the implication," he said when we were finished, impersonating a shocked Professor McGonagall. I had to admit it was hilarious. I tried not to let it show though.

"Whatever…" I turned my head in order to hide to smile on my lips, like I said earlier; the boy really didn't need an ego boost. "Why are you sitting here anyways? Don't you usually sit with Potter?"

"Is it so bad that I enjoy your company, Whitaker?"

This took me a little aback. It wasn't at all what I had expected. "No, of course not." I said and then added with a sly smile, "and I get it, I mean, who could resist."

He looked like he wanted to make a comeback, but instead he said: "So why can't I see your drawing?"

"It's personal."

"You _know _that just makes me want to see it more right?"

I smirked, "of course I know." The truth was that I really didn't want to show him. I had been drawing a picture of a house and garden from my mother's new unpublished book and something made me want to keep it private. I had never shown my drawings to anybody, not even my mother.

"Arhh… The sweet torment," he groaned and put his head on the desk. I laughed and that was the moment Professor Owen came into the classroom.

The hour went by pretty fast when I was laughing and joking covertly with Sirius. At some point, James had pulled his chair up to sit next to us and it ended up being pretty fun actually. Owen scolded us several times, and while a part of me felt really bad, mostly I just felt happy.

… … …

That night I sat and talked with the girls in the dormitory. The next day was a Hogsmeade Saturday and Halloween at the same time, and we were all really excited. It was a prime time for dates and the guys at Hogwarts obviously knew it, since we all had them.

Brey was going with Chester, of course. Lily had said yes to go with a sixth year from Hufflepuff; Annette was going with the captain of the Ravenclaw team and Sophie was going with one of Chester's dorm-mates.

My date was a seventh year Ravenclaw whose name was Alexander. He was tall and had clear green eyes that I absolutely loved. His hair was dark brown, short and spiky. He had asked me out that same day when we were walking from care of magical creatures, I told him yes and we were going to meet each other in the entrance hall the day after.

"What are you wearing?" Asked Annette from where she was in the bathroom. Lily was braiding her hair in an intricate way in the promise that in the morning it would look nice and wavy.

I shrugged, "I figured I'd wear my robes."

Brey and Sophie looked at me in utter horror; Lily and Annette came out from the bathroom, Lily's hands in Annette's hair. It was quite the comical sight. I burst out laughing, and at seeing the two girls, so did Brey and Soph.

"What?" I said, Lily and Annette were still looking at me like I had just stood up, made myself green and starting acting out scenes from beetle the bard.

"You can't go on a date in your school robes," said Sophie.

"I mean, come on," said Lily.

"Honestly, Joce, totally hot Ravenclaw seventh year," said Brey.

"You can borrow something from me if you like," said Annette.

I sighed. "Fine. But I don't get the fuss. It's what I normally wear to dates."

They looked at each other again and Brey said, "Yeah, but this guy is gorgeous and this time you're going in to Hogsmeade."

"You'll all borrow muggle dresses from me," said Lily and beamed at us. Sophie squeaked and told us how much she loved Lily's muggle dresses.

"Aren't dresses a little too much?"

Lily looked at me and said, "I'll get you a casual one Jo."

… … …

The next morning I was woken up by Brey jumping into my bed and screaming "Boo!" in my ear. I jolted awake and, after I'd calmed down, hit her in the head with my pillow. The other girls just laughed and Brey lay down next to me. "Happy Halloween!" She squeaked and kissed my cheek, and then added excitedly: "it's date night!"

She jumped out of my bed and I threw my pillow after her again. Laughing, she ducked and turned around to throw it back at me. It hit the wall above my head and fell on top of my head with a thump.

I took it off, and yelled after her: "I hate you…"

From the bathroom I could her laughing and her reply: "No you don't. You love me."

I buried my head under my pillow again to try and go back to sleep, but it was useless; Brey had shook me too much. I sighed heavily and jumped out of bed. Then I jumped back in.

"Has the floor always been this cold?" I said.

Lily laughed and threw me my slippers, which were on the other side of the room. I muttered a thanks to her and went into the bathroom to get ready for my date.

About forty minutes later, we all went down to breakfast looking really nice. Sophie had done something to my hair that made it actually behave for once. Instead of the usual mess I now had defined curls. I had kept my braid though; I'd grown quite fond of it.

Brey's sandy blonde hair had been braided by Lily in a beautiful intricate way and she was wearing a layer of pink lipstick that made her face look serene and beautiful.

Annette's braids had done a fantastic job with her hair which was hanging down her chest. She was wearing a golden necklace with a small rose pendant that matched the lipstick she was wearing.

Sophie had on a headband that was made out of silver that her mother had given her. It had a floral pattern and it softened her face so she looked like a queen from the 15th century.

Lily had put something on her eyes that made them look s deep you could fall in if you looked for too long and she had pulled some of her hair away from her face and braided it so that it connected in the back. She looked incredible.

James thought so too; when we came into the great hall he dropped the spoon he was holding and it fell almost as fast as his jaw down to the table. Remus elbowed him hard in the side and James regained his posture. If Lily had seen, she was pretending she hadn't.

Instead of sitting where we usually sat, which was further up closer to the staff table, I pulled the girls with me and we sat down close to the end of the table where the boys were.

James looked at me gratefully as I seated myself opposite of him with Lily on my side. Remus on James' left side smiled at me.

I looked at him to see if he had any new scars or injuries and asked: "Are you okay, Remus?"

He knew what I was asking and nodded. "Thank you for asking. I'm doing fine" I was relieved to hear it; this was the first time I knew where Remus had really been when he was gone and I had been a little nervous, he was my friend after all. "

You look beautiful, Jocelyn," he said, "Alexander is going to fall at your feet."

I smiled at him and said: "Thank you, Remus." And as an afterthought: "but I seriously hope he doesn't; he'd be awfully heavy to lug around, don't you think?"

He laughed and so did Sirius and Peter. Sirius was on my left and Peter on James' right.

"You all look really nice," said Peter looking at us hopefully.

Sirius laughed and said: "Peter, mate, you know they all have dates."

Peter's face fell and he looked down into his oatmeal. I almost felt sorry for him, but then a very pretty Hufflepuff girl walked past and the way his eyes followed her made me feel not so sorry for him after all.

We ate our breakfast and laughed and joked; James made a few not-so-subtle come-on's to Lily and then we went back up to our dorms to change and brush out teeth before we'd head off.


	6. Chapter 6: James Potter

_**The Complication That was James Potter.**_

**A/N: Hey:) Sorry I haven't updated for a couple of weeks... Lost motivation for a little while, but now I've got it back! Yay:) **

Lily really had outdone herself when it came to our clothes. I'd seen the dresses she had lent Sophie and Annette throughout the years, but these were fabulous. I didn't really know all that much about muggle fashion, but Lily always seemed to magically conjure (no pun intended) all sorts of wonderfully flattering outfits for them all to wear.

I twirled in front the full-length mirror in the girls' bathroom, it was enchanted to compliment all girls who came in front of it; Dumbledore thought it a good boost to fragile teenage self-esteems, and he was right. When the mirror told me I looked beautiful I smiled despite myself and hoped Alexander would feel the same way.

My dress was mint green and made of a material the flowed like water down my body. It had long sleeves with a slight puff at the end and a collar that sat tightly around my neck. I had fastened my gold necklace under the collar and it peeked out at the bottom so that it rested on top of the fabric on my chest. The girls had tried to put Brey and me into high-heeled shoes, but we had both quite plainly refused and wore our normal flats instead.

The others looked stunning Lily's dresses looked as if they were made especially for them and I noticed guys looking after us as we walked down to greet our dates in the entrance hall.

… … …

When we had walked down to Hogsmeade, we all headed in different directions, completely resigned to let our dates design the day for us. Alexander had taken my hand in his and led me away from the hustle and bustle of the little village. I had heard Hogsmeade had used to be even more animated than it was now, back before the war, but I had never seen it myself. My father had told of great shops that were there when he was a kid; a joke shop so full of crazy things that one thought one might never reach the end of it, and a bookshop magically expanded as to be able to fit the vast amounts of books it held. My mother had told me many tales of the last one and I ached dearly for it. She had to send me the books I read now, and I longed to browse through shelves of all kinds of wonderful stories.

Alexander led me through a number of streets and dark alleys and I was beginning to wonder where it was he was taking me when all of a sudden he stopped, looked around and said excitedly: "I have a surprise for you."

I was a bit taken aback by this statement. A surprise? I barely knew him, how could he possibly plan a surprise for me? He offered his arm and I looked at him a little skeptically. Then I shrugged and grabbed onto it. He covered my hand with his and grinned sideways at me.

I was gripped very suddenly by an extremely unfamiliar and uncomfortable sensation of being turned inside out, and the world around me disappeared in a flurry of mint green and the snow that lightly lined the ground. One moment I was gasping for breath and squirming about frantically, the next I stood in a dark alley somewhere I wasn't familiar with. So that was apparition. I had to say, I wasn't a big fan.

I looked at Alexander, "So where are we then?"

"London. Thought I might take you to my favorite muggle café."

I grinned, "Enjoying the liberties of your apparition license, I understand?"

He smiled sheepishly at me and offered up his hand again. Smiling at him, I took it and we walked out of the dark of the alley and into the light.

An hour later found us in the café I had been told about and I had to admit it was a fabulous place. The walls were lined with shelves of books that made the room smelled wonderfully of ink on paper. It was a large, but intimate place; bookshelves had been used to separate the room into small corners and crooks, and couples were occupying tables and couches and bars looking like the coffee shop they sat in was the place of their dreams. Alexander and I sat in a booth with two cozy chairs and a small table huddled up in a small corner made up of a wall, a window and a bookcase filled with books. Alexander had ordered a muggle drink for me he thought I'd like, and it was incredible.

The café was fantastic, which was a stark contrast to my date; I wished he was more entertaining and kept catching myself wishing I was here with someone else. Someone fun, that I could laugh with. I had this image of myself laughing and joking with a guy I couldn't quite place… like in those pictures in magazines.

I spent a lot of time on that date listening half-heartedly to Alexander's endless and incredibly tiring rant about plants and their 'fascinating nature'. After an hour and a half I put my coffee down on the table and looked at him. He stopped talking about where to find caterwauling ivy and looked back at me having noticed the change in my mood.

"You alright?"

I sighed deeply. "Okay. I need to know something," I said preparing myself to take the last opportunity to see if this date could possibly lead to something more. I got up and walked over to him, seating myself on the table right in front of him. He looked quite startled, but didn't say anything, because I placed my hands on either side of his face and leant in to kiss him.

He reacted instantly, putting his hand on my back and pulling me into his lap. It gave me butterflies. Not hopeless, then, just needed to find a new conversational topic. I smiled into the kiss and let my hands wander to the back of his neck to tangle in his hair. One of his hands moved to rest on my cheek and he pulled away to look at me.

"Not that I'm complaining, at all, because I'm not, but I thought you didn't like me?"

"I do like you," I said "maybe just dial back the plant talk a little bit?"

He tensed up underneath me and looked up at me with the most adorable puppy dog eyes ever. "You're not interested in herbology?"

I raised my eyebrows quizzically, "No… never have been."

His face fell quite suddenly into a look of irritation. "James Potter." He muttered defeated.

James… He must've told Alexander to talk to me about plants. Typical James; messing around with me like that. I threw my head back and laughed. Alexander laughed with me, and then he put a hand on my face and kissed me again.

… … …

In the common room that night, I was pretty happy; after we had cleared up the little misunderstanding that was James Potter, we talked for hours about quidditch, family and books with the occasional pause to have a snog. The fact Brey's date went fabulously made me happy too. Sophie's date had been okay, she said, while Annette was walking on clouds proclaiming her undying love for William (the Ravenclaw team captain).

Brey and I had been a little shocked, but Lily and Sophie had assured us it would pass pretty quickly; Annette threw herself fully and completely into every love-interest. It left her with quite a few broken hearts, but it also gave her a life full of passion and excitement.

Lily's date had apparently been a disaster. He had been walking on eggshells around her and seemed afraid she would morph into a fire-crab at any given moment. I strongly suspected James had played a role in that too, but if Lily didn't already know, she didn't need to. I was secretly rooting for her and James, not that I would tell her, of course, she would probably declare me insane and I didn't want to lose my new friend.

We sat and talked about our day when Sirius and James came in through the portrait hole, apparently chasing each other, while Remus came in quietly behind them, Peter, who had been sitting alone in a corner, waved frantically. Sirius was running around the room frantically laughing like he had no worries in the world and James came after him and tackled him punching him lightly in the shoulder. It was the perfect picture of fun between brothers, and watching them made us all smile, even if certain people denied it on later occasions (ahem, Lily…).

I jumped up from my seat on the couch and walked over to where the boys had now settled in the corner with Peter. I dumped down next to James on the sofa he was in and pushed him playfully.

"Thanks a lot for your little trick, arsehole…" I laughed as he pushed me back and ruffled my hair.

"How long did you last?"

"An hour and a half," I said. James doubled over in a fit of laughter and Sirius was laughing too as he imagined me on my date listening to Alexander talking extensively about plants. Even Remus was laughing.

"How'd you find out anyways?" James had sobered up just a little bit, but he was still laughing.

"How do you think? You aren't exactly discreet… The whole school knows who the two of you are."

"He told on me?"

"Had you expected him not to?"

It was Sirius that answered rather than James. "How did you get out of there?"

I felt my face flush a shade of red and muttered: "I didn't…"

These two words inspired a new fit of laugher. I picked up the cushion next to me and hurtled it at Sirius as hard as I could and snickered in satisfaction as it hit him smack-dab in the middle of the face. Now Remus joined in the laughter too and said: "Padfoot, mate, I think you have something on your face."

Sirius took the little throw pillow and threw it back at me in a manner fit for twelve year old girls.

"Is that all you have, Black?"I said, teasing him, and grabbed the pillow. In one smooth movement, I sent it flying towards him again. "Are you afraid you're going to be outdone by a girl?"

This time Sirius caught hold of the pillow ten centimetres before it hit him. All our eyes were glued to it as it was slowly lowered to reveal Sirius' face filled with mischief.

"Now you're asking for it, Whitaker." A lopsided smile appeared on his lips, "James, grab her!"

I was quite suddenly gripped by a pair of hands around my ankles and held down while Sirius lurched himself at me and started tickling me as if his life depended on it. I screamed and kicked and swatted the air, but Remus had grabbed my hands and I was powerless. I don't know how long they held me down like that, but when I was finally released, I grabbed the pillow and started pounding Sirius with it, for good measure I gave Remus and James a couple of swats too, but Sirius was my main victim.

He threw up his arms and started laughing. I kept on pounding him until he took off and then I chased after him.


End file.
